Biogels such as hydrogel and fibrin glue are utilized as research matrix for three dimensional culture etc., surgical matrix such as pre/post-operation hemostatics or wound healing sheets, drug delivery system (DDS), and the like.
However, since many of these employ materials of biological origin, risks such as infection from microorganisms such as viruses, immunogenicity, and transmission of diseases exist with use thereof. For example, although fibrin glue has high utility value as a hemostatic during surgery, because the source material is derived from human blood, there had been multiple cases of patients being infected by hepatitis virus that had contaminated the fibrin glue upon actual use during surgery, thus causing a major social problem. There is also a problem that gels of homogeneous quality can not always be supplied with biogels of biological origin.
In contrast to biogels of biological origin, biogels manufactured by chemical synthesis are known to have no risk of infection and be capable of providing gels of homogeneous quality (Patent Literature 1). However, biogels known to date require procedures such as buffer exchange or substitution and mixing of multiple agents when forming a gel, and operation is complicated. Moreover, not only reagents or solvents to be used in combination are limited because solubility is low depending on the pH range, but there are also problems such as limitation of applicable sites (affected sites) and clogging of syringes or tubes upon use. In addition, low solubility (i.e. not transparent), particularly in the neutral range which is close to the biological pH, will complicate employment in situations that require visibility such as the surgery field.